1. Technical Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to communication systems; and, more particularly, it relates to identifying and character.
2. Description of Related Art
Data communication systems have been under continual development for many years. Within different types of communication systems, different respective communication channels may be implemented using different types of media. For example, certain communication channels are implemented in accordance with differential signaling. As such, such communication channels can include two respective and typically parallel paths constitute the media by which signals are communicated from a first communication device to a second indication device connected via the communication channel.
Unfortunately, in many actual implementations of communication channels, particularly those implemented via wired cabling, problems may occur with respect to the actual wiring. For example, insulation of such cabling may degrade, pressure points and/or twists along the cabling may cause problems, etc. Various examples of such problems within wired cabling may include opens, shorts, mis-terminations, etc. In some instances, even though there may be significant degradation to the particular cabling of a given installation, the signal processing (e.g., including error detection and/or correction, modulation schemes, etc.) may be such that data communications effectuated over a given compromised communication link will nonetheless occur without any problems. As such, because there is no discernible degradation in data communication quality and or error rates, it may be difficult to determine whether or not the cabling has any problems.
However, certain applications operate within certain constraints such that that electromagnetic interference effects should be nonexistent or below some acceptable level. For example, a cabling having such degradation may unfortunately emit undesirable electromagnetic interference that will deleteriously affect the operation of other devices within a system and/or subsystem corresponding to such cabling. Also, a cabling having such degradation may unfortunately be susceptible to electromagnetic interference from one or more other sources. Generally speaking, there continues to be a need in the art for effective identification and characterization of such problems as may occur within various communication systems.